Perceptions of population growth and its potential threats to water security could prompt sustainability actions such as infrastructural improvements, use of water-saving technologies, and limits on water access. However, little is known about perceptions of population dynamics, including in rural areas of low-income countries. We surveyed around 500 smallholding farmers in a largely rain-fed region of Central Kenya, finding that virtually all respondents (96
Studies have shown that birth outcomes are negatively affected by natural disasters, which are a significant source of stress and fear. This dynamic suggests that a smaller number of newborns may be observed nine months after such events. We investigated this topic, focusing on the Pohang earthquake that occurred on November 15, 2017, in South Korea. For our analysis, we examined birth rates at the city level, using birth registry data from all 1.2 million live births that occurred exclusively between May and December from 2014 to 2018. We aimed to minimize bias by using a difference-in-differences estimation method, based on the distance from the epicenter. Our regression results indicate an 8
While evidence suggests that heat negatively affects learning across diverse global settings, its impact in Africa is under-studied. This paper contributes to this knowledge gap by combining georeferenced temperature data with standardized student assessment data in Grades 2 and 6 from the Program on the Analysis of Education Systems (PASEC) in eight West and Central African countries. First, we estimate the effects of heat exposure on students' reading and mathematics test scores. We show that exposure to high temperatures has sizable negative impacts on test scores for students in Grade 2 and (in some cases) Grade 6, with effect sizes that are large relative to other world regions. Second, we explore how heat impacts child labor and school-based hunger among Grade 6 students, two potential mechanisms that could link heat to test scores. These analyses suggest that heat exposure increases time allocated to labor in many cases, though impacts on hunger are positive but imprecisely estimated. Third, we analyze whether the effects of heat on test scores vary by socioeconomic status (SES) and gender among both grades. We find that in most cases the effect of temperature on test scores varies little by socioeconomic background or gender with one exception: Extreme heat (above 33°C) has a disproportionately negative impact on higher-SES students in Grade 6. We interpret this pattern as evidence consistent with an erosion of compensatory advantage—wherein wealthier students who are typically buffered against adversity may experience larger learning disruptions under extreme heat.
Racial and ethnic residential segregation and mortgage discrimination have disproportionately shaped environmental exposures associated with the built environment, such as industrial, rail, and roadway pollution. Yet patterns of contemporary mortgage lending and environmental disparities in Latino populations are understudied. We examined the spatial and temporal patterns of traffic-related air pollutants (TRAPs) and their relationship to Latino disparities in mortgage lending in the Combined Statistical Area (CSA) of Sacramento, California. We expect these disparities to reflect the effects of institutional racism through potential reductions in neighborhood investments and wealth accumulation at a census tract level. Using the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, we derived disparity in mortgage lending between Latino and non-Latino White loans applicants. Annual census tract level estimates of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and carbon monoxide (CO) represented TRAP exposures. We assessed spatial autocorrelation and clustering of Latino disparity in mortgage lending and TRAPs through Global Moran’s I and Local Indicators of Spatial Autocorrelation. Latino disparity in mortgage lending and TRAPs were significantly spatially clustered in the CSA when examined individually (p < 0.05), and NO2 and CO were spatially autocorrelated with Latino disparity in mortgage lending (p < 0.05). Spearman correlations indicated mortgage lending disparities and TRAPs were moderately correlated with census tract level neighborhood characteristics such as Latino population, Latino homeownership, housing cost burden (mortgage lending: ρ = 0.375–0.430; TRAPS: ρ = 0.421–0.684) as well as median family income (mortgage lending: ρ= -0.659; TRAPs: ρ= -0.388 to -0.458). These findings indicate that the patterns of mortgage lending and traffic-related exposures are intricately connected, potentially sharing common underlying built environment determinants shaped by structural and historical practices.
High temperatures and extreme heat kill more people in the United States than any other extreme weather event, and higher nighttime temperatures and associated health risks are expected to increase under future climate change. This study applied a small-area, case time series distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) to characterize the association between temperature exposure and heat-related illness (HRI) emergency department (ED) visits (n = 31,765) using daily ED visit data (April—September 2011–2021) and daily nighttime temperature data at the zip code tabulation area (ZCTA) level in North Carolina (n = 802). Stratified models investigate how individual and community-level factors predict HRI risks at the 80th, 90th and 95th percentiles of minimum temperature compared to HRI risks at the 50th percentile. The cumulative risk of HRI increases exponentially above the 80th percentile, with individuals more than two times (RR:2.06 [CI: 1.88–2.25]) as likely to experience HRIs at the 95th nighttime temperature percentile. Temporally, the risk of HRIs is highest on the day of exposure (RRLag0:1.80 [CI:1.73–1.88]), with risk remaining elevated up to two days after exposure (RRLag2:1.06 [CI:1.05–1.08]) and increasing again on lag day seven (RRLag7:1.06 [CI:1.03–1.08]). Results indicate differential HRI risk above the 80th percentile among young people (i.e., ages 24 and under) (RR: 2.14, CI:2.01–2.27), older adults (65 +) (RR:2.18, CI:2.05–2.32), and low-income individuals (RR:2.23, CI:2.09–2.38), and higher risk at the community level for rural (RR:2.09, CI:1.91–2.30), coastal (RR:2.18, CI:1.87–2.54), high income (RR:2.15, CI:1.94–2.38) and racially diverse communities (RR:2.23, CI:2.01–2.48), compared to median nighttime temperatures. Results emphasize the need for heat-health messaging and risk reduction efforts across community types that are widely accessible, regardless of individual context.
Previous research suggests that exposure to air pollution is unequal across many societies, where poorer populations and racial minorities are likely to experience greater risks. Building on previous studies and drawing on environmental justice literature, we examine the relationship between community racial and income characteristics and cancer risk from air toxics across counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Previous studies find that income decreases exposure to environmental risks, but it is unclear if income has the same protective effect across racial groups. Thus, in addition to testing for unequal exposure between these groups, we also examine the extent to which income moderates the relationship between race and cancer risk from air pollution. Examining data on all 77 Oklahoma counties for the year 2014, results from spatial lag models suggest that counties with a greater percentage of non-White racial minorities in general, as well as a higher percentage of Native Americans, Black residents and other minoritized groups in particular, are associated with greater exposure to cancer from air toxics, controlling for other important variables. However, models show that while income generally reduces cancer risk, this protective effect weakens and may become non-significant at higher levels of racial concentration in counties with higher shares of non-White, Native, and Black residents. Overall, the findings provide further evidence of racial disparities in exposure to environmental harm in the United States. Importantly, they also suggest that income may not play the same protective role for racial minorities, at least in the context of Oklahoma.
Climate change not only affects the environments we live in but also shapes how we are attached to them. These place attachments are the emotional bonds individuals form with specific places, encompassing affective, behavioral, and cognitive connections. Migrants and other mobile communities maintain dual attachments to both their countries of origin and their new environments. This study focuses on Moroccan migrants living in Tenerife, Canary Islands, examining how they respond to changing environments and navigate across transnational spaces. Through in-depth qualitative interviews and visual mapping with 19 participants, the study finds that Moroccan migrants experience a complex, multidimensional sense of place attachment to both Morocco and Tenerife. They maintain strong emotional connections to Morocco through nostalgia, family ties, and cultural practices, even as they face environmental challenges such as drought and resource depletion. Cognitively, the departure of key community figures and environmental degradation increased feelings of uncertainty and influenced decisions to migrate. Behaviorally, social media is vital in maintaining connections to Morocco, but can intensify feelings of loss. The findings highlight the interplay among emotional, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions, as well as how environmental change complicates migrants' relationships with both their homeland and their destination.
The increased frequency of natural disasters and rising rates of mental disorders have become significant concerns globally. This paper examines their interrelation within a particularly disadvantaged group—refugees—who often maintain close ties to their home countries and may therefore be indirectly affected by adverse events, including natural disasters. We specifically investigate the impact of home-country natural disasters on the mental health of refugees resettled in Australia, drawing on unique longitudinal data from more than 2,300 refugees tracked over six survey waves (2013–2023). Using a fixed-effects regression model, we find that refugees originating from countries experiencing natural disasters show higher scores on the Kessler-6 psychological distress scale, corresponding to an average increase of 0.019 standard deviations. Estimates by disaster type show that the effects are concentrated in floods, the most common disaster in our sample. We also explore the moderating role of community support, revealing that ethnic, religious, and other community supports significantly mitigate the adverse mental health impacts of disasters. These findings underscore the spatially-diffuse, networked impact of disasters and the importance of supportive networks and targeted mental health interventions in improving refugees’ integration into their host countries.
This research advances scholarship on climate justice and its gendered dimensions by producing original evidence on environmental health disparities among queer populations. The study objectives include (1) describing the distribution of experiences with flooding and extreme heat; and (2) quantifying the odds of experiencing flooding, extreme heat, and negative health experiences along multiple dimensions of social identity and geographic locations. Survey data (n = 882) administered in Fall 2024 among queer residents in Ohio were analyzed. The distributions of experiences with flooding, extreme heat, and negative health consequences are summarized by gender identity, sexual orientation, race, age, household income, disability, and geographic residence. Results from logistic regression models indicate that transgender respondents were particularly vulnerable to flooding and extreme heat. Compared to cisgender men, transgender respondents had 2.2 times the odds of experiencing displacement or damage to their home or property due to flooding, 3.5 times the odds of having a negative health experience due to flooding, 2.1 times the odds of experiencing extreme heat that they were unable to find relief from, and 3.8 times the odds of having a negative health experience due to extreme heat. Additionally, respondents with a disability and those living in an urban location had greater odds of experiencing extreme heat and its negative health impacts compared to non-disabled and rural respondents, respectively. The findings expand our knowledge on distributional justice and the multiple social and geographic factors linked to climate change vulnerability among queer communities, which are an important yet understudied and marginalized population.
How do geospatial sorting and social stratification condition natural-disaster exposure and impact? Using the case of the May 2022 flash floods in Pernambuco, Brazil, we address this question with a dual-source approach that captures disparities in both exposure to anomalously high rainfall and the reported impacts of resulting floods. While exposure to anomalous rainfall is tied to geospatial segregation patterns, reported impacts may also reflect localized infrastructure, such as drainage systems or piped water availability, that capture municipality-level investment and capacity to withstand flooding. Findings from exposure analysis reveal significant disparities by race, religion, maternal education, and income. However, these relationships fully attenuate after adjustment for municipal location, suggesting that settlement patterns and geospatial marginalization drive the observed exposure disparities. Findings from the analysis of self-reported flood impact also show disparate impacts by race, employment status, number of children under 15, and household income, but in this case, only racial disparities are fully attenuated after spatial adjustments. Further findings show that low-income households and those with more children report significantly greater impacts even after adjusting for both municipal fixed effects and hazard exposure. Interaction models reveal steeper dose-response relationships between rainfall and impacts for low-income households, and we find evidence that household infrastructure significantly mediates economic disparities in flood impacts. Combined, results demonstrate that relying solely on externally measured exposure to gauge the stratified impacts of extreme precipitation or flash floods may miss important socioeconomic disparities. Both geospatial segregation patterns and household-level capacities to withstand environmental shocks shape vulnerability.
The use of migration as an adaptation strategy is now recognized by scholars and policymakers as a key response to climate change. Cash transfer programs, now being implemented worldwide, also have the potential to facilitate adaptation and promote resilience in low- and middle-income countries. We investigate the extent to which a cash transfer program in Kenya promoted the mobility of household members due to climate shocks, leveraging exogenous variation in local deviations from the historical climate and the administration of the program through a randomized controlled trial. Our findings indicate that beneficiary households were less likely to reduce migration amid cold spells, likely via shifts in education-related migration. We also find that heat spells ubiquitously encourage new members to join the household, while cold spells have the opposite effect, and that cash transfers do not appear to alter these relationships. Together the results suggest that cold spells can trap migrants in temperate, low-resource settings and that cash transfers can partially alleviate these constraints. Modeling migration and complementary strategies in the presence of climate tipping points will become necessary to predict when more permanent migration will be triggered and modifying social assistance will become necessary.
Ageing well, frequently evaluated through life satisfaction (LS), is a universal aim for societies, and is a particularly pressing concern in Europe with its growing older adult population. LS is linked to the surrounding environment through responses to ecological system changes, as described by the ecological theory of ageing. Previous research primarily focused on either built or natural environments separately. This study examines the effects of dwelling size (proximal factor), degree of urbanicity (intermediate factor), and forest coverage and weather-related loss events (distal factors) within the physical environment continuum on the LS of older adults across 25 European Union countries and Switzerland (N = 23,596). A two-level mixed model analysis, adjusted for relevant control variables, was conducted using individual-level data from the 8th wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, NUTS 3-level data for forest coverage, and country-level data for climate risk. The results indicate positive associations between LS and dwelling size, degree of urbanicity, and forest coverage. Between-country variation accounted for approximately 5
Racialized and lower-income communities often face disproportionate health risks from air pollution. In central Texas, semiconductor fabrication plants (SFPs) are a major emissions source, but their health effects and impact on disparities remain unclear. This study examined 217 census tracts in Travis County, Texas, calculating an SFP exposure score based on facility-reported emissions, weighted by proximity. Using distance-adjusted propensity score matching, this study compared 30 tracts within 2 km of SFPs to similar nearby tracts, controlling for demographics and socioeconomic indicators. Results showed SFPs were located in tracts with higher proportions of Black (12
Wellbeing and environment are inherently interlinked and, as such, should be supported by a framework that captures multiple relationships between people and ecosystems. A comprehensive wellbeing assessment encompasses broad objective and subjective indicators which account for local community and governance priorities, and acknowledge wellbeing as relational to the time and space it is constructed. While existing frameworks address components of the environment-wellbeing system, they often do not incorporate comprehensive wellbeing within an environmental context. The Environment and Comprehensive Wellbeing framework addresses this gap, supporting research on the impacts of climatic hazards, landscape characteristics, and environmental policy interventions upon wellbeing in low- and middle-income countries. The framework is novel in its exploration of how objective and subjective wellbeing interact, and how the relational context, including environmental conditions over various timescales, impact these relationships. Despite being primarily designed to explore local wellbeing, the framework contains sufficient breadth to facilitate multiscale research. The framework is applied to a mixed-method example in Volta Delta, Ghana. The prominence of subsistence agriculture within the environmentally vulnerable delta accentuates the interconnectivity between livelihoods, wellbeing and environment. Applying this novel framework provides a platform for a deeper understanding of the findings. For example, a context-specific dichotomy between low objective and high subjective wellbeing was illustrated in drought-impacted agricultural areas. Research deploying an exclusively objective approach may have omitted information on how collective community norms could promote sustainable activities, while a subjective approach may have overlooked requirements for more-immediate material support, highlighting the synergistic benefit of encompassing subjective and objective wellbeing.
Pro-natalist policies introduced in response to declining fertility rates may have unintended consequences for household energy consumption and environmental sustainability. This study examines how fertility policy relaxation affects household energy use, taking China’s universal two-child policy as a representative reform. Using micro-level household survey data and a difference-in-differences approach, we find that the policy significantly increases per capita household energy consumption, contrary to the conventional expectation that population growth improves energy efficiency through economies of scale. Additional analysis reveals that both behavioral and structural factors drive this observed increase in energy consumption. Behaviorally, households spend more time at home due to childcare responsibilities. Structurally, the policy has shifted the distribution of births toward urban and higher-income families, which typically exhibit higher energy consumption. Furthermore, the policy’s impact is more pronounced in electricity use, particularly in regions with centralized heating and among households with lower environmental awareness. These findings offer new insights for low-fertility countries seeking to design population policies that align with sustainable energy and climate objectives.
This paper investigates how tropical cyclones influence both out-migration from affected areas and the attractiveness of storm-impacted destinations in the southeastern United States, with attention to racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic heterogeneity. Using microdata from the American Community Survey linked with physically modeled tropical cyclone wind-speed estimates, we find that storm exposure has meaningful effects on migration behavior and exhibits substantial heterogeneity that may reshape demographic distributions across affected regions. Storm exposure increases out-migration among low-income families while reducing it among high-income families. Examining racial and ethnic heterogeneity indicates that the income effect is concentrated among White families, whereas the same income pattern does not emerge for Hispanic or African American families. In particular, African American families exhibit limited mobility across income levels, suggesting that non-economic barriers constrain relocation decisions. At the same time, storm-exposed destinations become significantly less attractive to potential migrants, particularly those with lower incomes. Notably, areas with favorable pre-storm economic conditions, such as high socioeconomic status and rapid growth, lose their appeal even further, especially among minority populations, highlighting unequal exposure to the secondary effects of disasters through the erosion of local opportunities. Overall, migration emerges as an uneven adaptive response shaped by intersecting racial, ethnic, and economic factors, emphasizing the need to integrate equity considerations into post-disaster recovery and adaptation planning.
Migration has increasingly been highlighted as a potential adaptation employed by individuals or households to cope with environmental disruptions. Despite well-established insight on environment-induced migration, the interplay between environment and financial remittances, an integral part of migration in many contexts, remains underexplored. Employing panel data from Thailand and Vietnam from 2007 to 2017, linked to precipitation data, we investigate the effect of rainfall variability and perceived environmental shocks on household remittance reception. Our regression analyses reveal that severe drought-like conditions in the current year increase the likelihood of households receiving remittances in Thailand. In Vietnam, however, both moderately drier and wetter conditions positively influence remittance inflows, indicating a broader sensitivity of remittance flows to environmental variability. Lagged effects of precipitation deviations are evident, particularly in Vietnam, where similar patterns persist over time. Yet, unlike the effects of observed precipitation deviations, perceived environmental shocks reported by households show limited association with migration and remittance flows. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the relationship between environmental variability, particularly precipitation deviations, and household migration and remittance over time.
It is commonly assumed that climate change has and will continue to undermine food security in low- and middle-income countries. While substantial evidence supports this expectation, few studies have tested the hypothesis that adverse local climate exposures, particularly high temperatures, directly increase household experiences of hunger or food insecurity. We test this hypothesis using three waves of nationally-representative, longitudinal household survey data from rural Ethiopia, high-resolution climate data, and fixed effects regression approaches. Critically, we examine five food security outcomes and 13 supplementary outcomes, decompose climate effects by season of exposure, and allow these effects to vary across farm size, a relevant measure of vulnerability in the Ethiopian context. Our analysis reveals that both hot and dry conditions during the main growing season, as well as cold and wet conditions during the main harvest season, undermine food security and this is particularly true for smallholder households. The growing season effects are consistent with observed effects on agricultural yields, and the harvest season effects are consistent with observed migration responses. Taken together, the results support the expectation that rural households in Ethiopia are vulnerable to adverse climatic conditions, but do not support assumptions of a uniform decline in food security under climate change, particularly in highland regions.
As climate change intensifies the frequency and severity of hurricanes, displacement has become a recurring and disruptive reality for many coastal and island communities. In the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, households in The Bahamas were not only forced to navigate the immediate challenges of evacuation and loss, but also the longer-term process of rebuilding lives amid severely reduced resources and constrained mobility. A little over six months after the hurricane, and three months before the subsequent hurricane season, the COVID-19 pandemic introduced new anxieties and travel restrictions locally, nationally, and internationally. The unfolding of the two events provided an opportunity to examine adaptive capacity not as latent, but through the explicit use of resources in response to two consecutive events, highlighting the critical needs of displaced households in the context of compound disasters. Drawing on interviews conducted with Hurricane Dorian-displaced households in The Bahamas during the COVID-19 pandemic, this research examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these households’ recovery, and the implications for household vulnerability, through the lens of adaptive capacity. The research finds that when mobility is constrained, as it was during the COVID-19 pandemic, the adaptive potential of displaced households is significantly reduced. This paper contributes to broader discussions on climate adaptation, disaster recovery, and mobility by showing how vulnerability is produced by not only hazard exposure, but also the erosion of adaptive capacity through successive and overlapping crises.
Drylands cover a significant portion of the Earth’s surface and support a large share of the global population. They are particularly vulnerable to climate change due to low and highly variable precipitation, changes in precipitation patterns, drought, and desertification. Historically, human mobility has been a critical adaptive response in drylands, supporting communities to cope with climatic and environmental shocks. We use a systematic review of the case study literature in the Web of Science (1976–2023) to assess the effects of climatic stressors on human (im)mobility in drylands. The keywords we use capture various forms of mobility and immobility (migration, displacement, pastoralism, relocation, and immobility) and climatic stressors (rapid-onset, slow-onset, and climate variability) in the world’s 107 countries that have at least 1
